Otis Wilson from the 1985 Championship Chicago Bears and former Chicago Bear and Green Bay Packer Anthony Morgan will "kick-off" the 2014 ADPI/ABI Annual Conference on Sunday, April 27th at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, IL.

New Zealand's Fonterra Cooperative Group, China's largest supplier of mozzarella cheese, plans to increase its production to 50,000 metric tons per year before September 2015 to keep up with the Asian country's rising demand for pizza. Fonterra predicts that demand for mozzarella will increase by 20% in both 2014 and 2015. "The majority of our growth in the next five years is all about China. I'd say there's an 80% chance that anytime you have a pizza there, it's Fonterra cheese," Fonterra's Foodservice Division Director Rene Dedoncker said.

Fonterra Cooperative Group, was fined $300,000 (US$256,000) for breaches of the Animal Products Act during last year’s whey protein concentrate incident. Judge Peter Hobbs fined Fonterra $60,000 for three separate charges and $120,000 for a fourth charge in the Wellington District Court. He gave Fonterra a discount for its early guilty plea and for the steps the company took to address the issue, however he stepped up the penalty to reflect the company’s size.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will begin soliciting proposals on May 20th from Greek yogurt makers who will be seeking to provide Greek yogurt to 12 states as part of USDA’s recently expanded Greek yogurt pilot program. In advance of the USDA’s Request for Proposal (RFP), US Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Senator and Greek yogurt advocate, is urging New York Greek yogurt producers like Alpina, Fage, Chobani, Muller Quaker and more, to apply for the expanded pilot.

Hilmar Cheese has opened its new 55,000-square-foot California-based headquarters which features several environmentally-friendly installations, such as solar panels, an air conditioning system that uses recirculated wastewater and a charging station for electric vehicles. The new building also includes an Innovation Center lab, where Hilmar researchers will work on developing innovative dairy products.

Schreiber Foods is continuing to expand its facilities in Richland Center, Wisconsin, to meet an increasing consumer demand for yogurt, plant manager Joe Steinocher said. Schreiber, which is believed to be the largest employee-owned dairy company, has invested more than $100 million to expand, upgrade and automate its yogurt equipment and technology in the Richland Center area and to build a 33,000-square-foot distribution center that is expected to be completed this year.

South Korea imported 25% more cheese from the U.S. in 2013 than the previous year to meet a growing demand, making the country the second largest importer of U.S. cheese behind Mexico. Dairy prices in the U.S. have risen as a result of the demand and milk futures are trading at record highs of about $24. "In the U.S., some of the biggest cheese plants in the world are not running anywhere near full capacity. There's a real hole in the market worldwide to meet cheese demand," Interfood Strategist and Dairy Derivatives Trader Ron O'Brien said.